Marc Berman helps secure $5 million for allcove youth mental health

Allcove is a youth-centered, walk-in mental health services hub that provides peer support, substance use services and community events, among others. The program, which was born out of Stanford University research, now has five locations serving youth ages 15-25 that are up and running, including one in Palo Alto and another in San Mateo.

Eight other allcove centers are in various stages of development, including a Half Moon Bay location, according to the program’s website.

Berman, alongside his colleague Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, D-Santa Cruz, originally lobbied for $24 million for allcove to be included in the upcoming state budget. Although the $5 million designated was far less than the original request, Berman said he was still happy with it, given California’s tight financial situation.

“I didn’t think we would be successful because there wasn’t a lot of money in the budget for these types of asks, for these types of requests, but we kept on it,” he said. “Youth mental health is an issue that’s been important to me my whole 10 years in the Assembly.”

There isn’t any specification as to how allcove will be required to spend the money, Berman said, which follows the organization’s model — it was designed to give youth autonomy over what they need to see from their mental health services.

“The whole model is that everything is really designed by the youth,” he said. “It’s the same thing with this funding — let’s give the organization $5 million, and trust that they will spend it as best as they can, to go to the highest needs.”

In a high-income region like the Bay Area where both parents and general societal expectations can set a standard of achievement as the baseline for teens, it’s particularly important to fund mental health resources, Berman said.

“Kids can’t all be in the top 2%, but they still feel that pressure,” Berman said. “It’s tragic when the pressure — and it’s in the mental health challenges of growing up in an area like this — lead to a young person taking their own life, and that’s also preventable.”

Aside from direct funding efforts, Berman has also made youth mental health a legislative priority. A recent bill he authored, which would create free youth mental health and suicide prevention training for teachers and parents, is currently on the governor’s desk awaiting a signature.